We are in the middle of summer now — I hope your mornings are slow, your walks are early, and there is a piece of watermelon being shared with a very good dog somewhere near you.
I want to share something a little different with you today. Something personal.
You see, when I was applying to veterinary school, I chose my schools by one strange rule.
I only applied to the ones that did not require public speaking.
That is how afraid I was of being seen and heard. And a few weeks ago, that same girl sat in front of a camera — sun directly in her eyes, because of course it was — and talked live to the world for two hours.
Episode 100 of My Dog Is Better Than Your Dog.
It was not a polished show. It was a family reunion. Longtime listeners asking questions, dogs wandering through frames, a giveaway that descended into happy chaos, and a Cosmopolitan standing in for champagne because it was what I had.
Somewhere along these hundred episodes, I came to a realization that changed everything for me.
It was never about me at all. Not my fears. Not what anyone might think of me. It is about what these conversations might change for an animal I will never meet.
And then, in the middle of the live show, one of our longtime community members reminded me why.
She talked about her girl, who stayed with her until almost sixteen. She looked back across all those years of love and care and research and second opinions, and she said, quietly, “I tried.”
I stopped her right there.
You did not try. You did.
Because that is the truth about the people in this community. You show up. You ask the questions. You add the fresh food, you learn the strange new words, you drive across town for the thing your gut says is worth trying. Your pets do not experience your worry as imperfection. They experience it as devotion.
That is what one hundred episodes actually is. Not my voice — your questions. Every single one of them has helped a dog or cat whose family was listening quietly on the other side, thinking, “Me too.”
The full celebration — the questions, the stories, the happy chaos — is this week’s episode of My Dog Is Better Than Your Dog. It is episode 100, and it exists because of you. If you have been here for one episode or all of them, thank you for letting me be part of your pet’s world.
Here is to the next hundred. Well — let us make it to 200 first, and then we will see.
Give them a hug from me. 💜
— Dr. Lily
